If you are in facilities management there is probably someone in your team in charge of renting lifts all over the country. Anyone renting equipment daily understands that it is time consuming, complicated, and inefficient.
The cool part of being that person is that you get to flourish in your most comfortable environment ‘putting out fires and pulling miracles’ to get the job done on time and under budget. Having rented equipment (literally for a living) for the past four years, I have picked up a few tricks that I am going to share in how to save money while building a long-lasting relationship.
Before I dive into these legitimate ways to save, I would like to share, that telling your equipment rental supplier that someone else has the same machine at a cheaper price does not work more than a couple of times, trust me.
1) Book in Advance
Most preventive maintenance jobs are generally scheduled in advance, for example, HVAC professionals know they will be changing the air conditioning filters every six to eight weeks.
For the most part, people schedule the lifts at the very last minute resulting in logistics difficulties for the rental yard affecting delivery times and resulting in delays. These delays can directly affect the project’s profitability as it may increase the technician’s hours and even force you to reschedule the job altogether.
By scheduling lifts in advance, you gain control over the process and gain a bargaining card when negotiating pricing with the equipment supplier. Knowing that rentals will be scheduled in advance incentivizes the supplier to work with you to build a long-standing win-win relationship.
2) Search for Supplier On Google Maps
Professionals dealing with lift rentals know that equipment delivery is expensive. For example, the rental fee for a 19ft scissor lift is on average $175 per day, while the delivery can go up to $450 round trip. This is a problem people encounter when working exclusively with the national companies whose facilities may not be close enough to the job site.
What I do is to search equipment rental suppliers on google maps, this way you can quickly narrow down your equipment search to the nearest rental companies, who will deliver for a portion of what the nationals company would, even if the rental fee is 50% more expensive, the delivery alone will yield major savings.
3) Buy Store Credit
Not all rental companies are made equal and our company Tobly has developed a new practice. Whether you go through us or not, companies who sell bulk rentals upfront can save you lots of money.
For example, let’s say your company is hired to perform a quarterly pressure wash for a 25-location regional restaurant franchise. At that point, you will know that one hundred lifts will be needed in the coming year one year.
The cost of renting a 19ft scissor for one day is on average $515 (all inclusive) generating a $51,500 bill for that year. Our program offers you the same number of rentals for $40,000 paid upfront. Please email us to learn more.
In Conclusion
Due to the industry dynamics, equipment rental is often a task many people want to avoid, and this is why we are working so hard to make the process simple.
While there are many ways to find savings money and the ones mentioned above have been critical for creating an environment in which both the rental yard and the customers make the most of the relationship.
Businesses rely on each other to thrive, therefore, working together in finding ways to optimize for efficiency will build a strong partnership meant to last.